1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal apparatus, e.g., a point of sales (POS) terminal apparatus, in an article sales system, which is installed in a convenience store or the like.
2. Description of the Art
Conventional POS systems are installed in places where consumers and retailers are in contact with each other, e.g., department stores, supermarkets, gas stations, and convenience stores. The main function of a POS is cash management in sales transactions. In addition, a POS system has a sales data collecting function, a customer information collecting function, a credit function, and the like. With these functions, a POS system has been used for the automation of a sales counter and is labor saving in business back-up operations. Furthermore, in such a system, pieces of information are processed to perform automatic replenishment/ordering operations or to establish a business policy.
Regarding a cash register as a POS terminal used in a POS system, an operator clerk must store cash (bills and coins) in units of denominations and pick up small change. Hence, the operation load of the operator is large. For this reason, a strong demand has arisen for the automation of such cumbersome operations.
In order to satisfy this demand, for example, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 64-36394 discloses a POS terminal apparatus for storing cash upon sorting and counting and for dispensing change.
Although this POS terminal apparatus can greatly reduce the load of an operator, the mental load of the operator is still large because he/she still deals with cash. In addition, since a cash counting/storing unit is expensive, the POS terminal apparatus cannot be easily introduced.
Furthermore, since a payment by a credit card accompanies cumbersome requirements like signatures, most customers pay in cash for articles of low prices. Accordingly, an operator must always have cash in hand, and change is undesirably increased in amount.
The mental load of the operator is inevitably increased, and hence an improvement in service with respect to customers cannot be expected.